Hospital Parking Charges Under Fresh Review As Brady Demands Action

Eight-year wait since last review as patients face mounting costs

Wicklow TD John Brady has hit out at the HSE after it announced another review into hospital parking charges, calling it proof that the Government has failed to address an issue affecting patients across the constituency.

The announcement comes eight years after the previous review was ordered by then Health Minister Simon Harris, with little progress in that time despite repeated promises in successive Government programmes.

"Patients and their families should not have had to wait eight years for action while more than €73 million has been taken through hospital parking charges between 2020 and 2025," Brady told us.

"For those attending hospital regularly for cancer treatment, chronic illnesses or other serious conditions, these charges quickly add up and place a very real strain on families."

A tax on the ill

The Sinn Féin TD who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, argues the practice amounts to a "stealth tax" on people left with no choice but to seek hospital care.

"Over time, hospitals have effectively become dependent on this revenue stream, with patients and their loved ones being treated as a source of income to plug the gaps left by the gross underfunding of hospitals across the State," Deputy Brady said.

"It is completely unacceptable that people who are already facing illness, anxiety and financial pressure are being forced to put their hands in their pockets."

Sinn Féin has included provisions to reduce and eventually abolish hospital parking charges in its alternative budget proposals. Brady is calling on the Health Minister to move beyond reviews and take immediate action.

"Patients don't need another review, they need the Minister for Health to act and ensure that access to healthcare is never determined by a person's ability to pay for parking."